Untarnished truth: Arizona shines at No. 3 for clean language

And that is not sarcasm. A study out of Seattle placed Arizona third as the least foul-mouthed state.

Washington topped the list of “Goody Two Shoes” states least likely to curse, followed by Massachusetts. Texas came in behind Arizona and Virginia was No. 5. Ohio had the worst language. Rounding the top five in swearing like a sailor were Maryland, New Jersey, Louisiana and Illinois.

The firm behind the study, Marchex, which specializes in mobile advertising, analyzed more than a half-million customer calls to dozens of types of businesses, stretched over a year.

The researchers employed speech-recognition tools that checked for curse words and well-mannered speech.

The study also revealed that men accounted for 66 percent of the cursing, and that calls lasting more than 10 minutes had the most curse words.